Freshwater shrimp

[Nickle Pickle]

I have noticed that there are some small freshwater shrimp in my local waterways and was wondering how easy they are to look after, like what they eat, water conditions etc.

[sharn]

on a trip to hamilton once we stopped on the kaimais and caught some shrimp. i put a few in my axolotl tank, a few got eaten but over a month later their still going strong. im not sure what type they are, just little see through ones about 2cm long max but id say this type is pretty hardy. i think theyre filter feeders but im not too sure, my axie tank is just a plain old cold water tank with average parameters

[fishboi]

hello

there is only one type of wild fresh water shrimp in NZ and everything u want to know is on this web site

http://www.nzfreshwater.org/shrimp.html

it says they are real sensitive but from everyone i ever talked to that has keeped it says they are real hardy.... but i have real trouble keeping them alive :oops:

[Rebecca]

Hi there

I've got these little guys and found they're very easy to keep as long as their tankmates aren't smaller than them, I caught one eating a baby axolotl so now don't keep them in with my babies. I've got them in with goldfish and on their own and found them hardy as long as their tank has a lid, they can really leap :bounce: :bounce: They eat the fish food and also love plants, mostly hanging out in the java fern. Great little critters to watch but I'd keep them separate from anything when you first catch them for about a month to be sure they're healthy.

Cheers

Rebecca

[Ira]

Most likely the baby axolotyl died of some other cause. They're scavengers, not predators.

[fishboi]

hay Rebecca whats the longest time u've keep one for ? any success in breeding them?

[Rebecca]

Yes Ira, I thought the same thing but then I spotted 2 other shrimps chasing another baby and decided not to take the risk anymore. It was easier just to whip them out of the tank.

I've had them breed but I think my goldfish just find them irrisistible at the little size as very few survive. It's just a plain old 2 ft tank with 2 bubble eyes in it and I do fortnightly or weekly water changes so nothing special. The babies are neat though. The others that I keep on their own are in a planted environment and I've never tried to count them so possibly there's babies in there. That one has quite a lot of daphnia and moss and I just throw in some fish food every few days. My oldest ones were adults when I got them 6 months ago.

Rebecca

[Raul]

I've found them pretty easy to keep, although they do normally slowly disappear during the year. This may coincide with their tankmates growing and or have something to do with their lifecycle. They are also likely to be more prone to predation after moulting which they do quite regularly.

Feeding them is never a problem as they take all kinds of fish food. But i wouldn’t keep them with anything smaller than they are, especially if you're attached to it. While probably not among the top predators in our water ways who can pass up a tasty bite size snack.

I don’t think they'll breed in the home aquarium. The eggs/larvae are washed out to sea where they spend some time growing and metamorphosing before migrating back into freshwater. Interestingly, they all start life as males and when they get larger they turn into females. If you're lucky you might observe a female carrying eggs under her abdomen but i think that’s about as far as reproduction will go in the tank.

There is only one “freshwater†shrimp in NZ (Paratya curvirostris), but if you’re catching them from a stream that is quite close to the coast you might get some of the “saltwater†shrimp as well. These do ok for a while in freshwater but are probably more suited to a marine tank.